Covey (Mia Isaac/Chipo Chung) holds many memories in her consciousness in the Hulu adaptation of Charmaine Wilkerson’s book “Black Cake,” some easier to relive than others.
A flashback approaching in the show’s latest episode, titled “Birth Mother” and set for release Wednesday, finds Covey’s maid Pearl Thomas (Faith Alabi) presenting her with Covey’s mother’s necklace as a consolation to baking the traditional black cake for a wedding in which Covey wants no part.
“I brought you something from your mother,” Pearl says. “When she left the island, her plan was to come back for you, but she asked me to hold onto this just in case, so you always have a piece of her.”
Covey’s mother never returned, and her father squandered her future by gambling it away so that the only price great enough to pay his debt was the marriage of his daughter to Clarence “Little Man” Henry (Anthony Mark Barrow).
“I know you’re still angry at me Covey,” Pearl says at the beginning of the clip. “Believe me, baking a cake for a wedding like this for you, it’s not what I ever wanted.”
Upon receiving the necklace from Pearl, Covey reveals her secret wish that somehow, her mother would swoop in to save her from her unfair fate before her wedding.
“Part of me was hoping maybe she’d show up today, somehow fix all of this,” Covey says.
A different method ended up saving Covey from an unhappy marriage — poison. Little Man ingested it either in the cake, or something else before their first dance at the wedding reception. The culprit remains unclear, though. At different points in the series, it seems like Pearl, Bunny (Lashay Anderson), Covey’s father Lin (Simon Wan) or Gibbs (Ahmed Elhaj) might have done it.
Six out of eight episodes of “Black Cake” are now available to stream on Hulu.
